You throw the ball. You catch the ball. You hit the ball…Of course, baseball fans know that this line from Bull Durham is far from true, part of the humor of the movie and a huge part of the fun of the game. This blog is a space to talk about baseball, being a baseball fan, all of those things that make the game fun and the Angels, because they make baseball fun for me.

Of Angelic Offenses, Hot Corners, Video Games and Towels: More Spring Training Thoughts

Holy Angels Lineup, Batman! They hit! They steal! They knock in runs! And they score and score and score again! I am so happy with the Angels offense right now that I am beaming as I type this. I hope this carries over into the regular season and grows! It sure looks Albert Pujols was the missing piece this lineup puzzle needed because all of the good pieces we had going last season are now working in conjunction with one another to create multiple, multiple run innings instead of little tiny offensive outbursts. They look almost as good as the starting rotation – and that ‘almost’ reflects more on the high bar set by the starting rotation than anything else. Speaking of which, I’ll bet that as pleased as the fans are, the run support starved starting rotation is even more so.

That sticky third base question…seems to be a lot less sticky than folks were predicting actually. We have now seen Mark Trumbo play third base and it worked out pretty darned well. He played the grounders hit his way well, including one that took a nasty hop. He made a great diving catch. In all of the discussion about the possibility of Trumbo at third, his arm was never once in doubt…even so, it was really nice to see that this assessment was accurate. And he did all of this while enjoying a good day at the plate which included his first Trumbomb of Spring Training. It’s only Spring Training. It was a very small sample size. But I actually think this could work. The stats and logic behind Clubhouse Confidential’s much more dire predictions a few weeks back did seem to make an unfortunate amount of sense. But people had the same predictions for Trumbo at first base last season with the same logic and, while he was certainly no Gold Glover, he turned out to be a competent, reliable first baseman who kept improving all season. I was hoping he would demonstrate the same caliber as a third baseman and, after watching him, I think that’s exactly what we can expect.

Those crazy MLB video game commercials. MLB 2K12? MLB 12 the Show? Which is better? I certainly couldn’t say. I don’t play video games much and when I do I tend to gravitate back to something old school like Gauntlet or Heretic. But I do know that the commercials for both MLB video game franchises are usually something special and this year is no exception. Justin Verlander’s Randy Johnson impersonation in the MLB 2K12 commercial has me laughing out loud every time. It almost makes up for his attempts at comedy on Conan O’Brien. As for the other? Granted, it’s not that hard to make me cry these days, but a video game commercial? ‘Fraid so. That darned Cubs Win!MLB 12 the Show commercial actually made me tear up…er…makes me tear up. He’s just so sad at the end! (Of course, we all know who they tried to get to be in that commercial and that’s just plain mean.) Suffice to say, both ads were very well done.

Don’t forget your towel. According to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a towel is “about the most massively useful” item you can bring on any journey, local, interstellar, or somewhere in between. Apparently David Price agrees to disagree with the vaunted Guide on this front. Don’t panic, David, you are not alone. Many of us suffer bizarre abuse at the hands of seemingly innocuous inanimate objects. I have a friend who threw out her back showing her daughter how to put on nylons. I have another friend who received a scar from a Rock Band guitar pretty much just as she was just walking by – we refer to this as her Rock Band stage diving scar, by the way. And there’s a good tip for you. If you can’t somehow make the inanimate object injury sound less silly, go for making it sound epic instead.

As for me? Doors are my personal bete noir. Car doors. House doors. Cupboard doors. Heck, even door jams. They all attack me and bruise my arms and legs on a regular basis. See, you are far from alone. Though I must admit, it is nice for the rest of us to be reminded yet again that even Major League baseball players can suffer from occasional bouts of klutziness too…and that that the rest of us only have to answer to the mockery of our friends and family, not the national media. Of course, as a woman, attending a small liberal arts college and having the only honest answer to “Where on Earth did you get that bruise?” be, “I ran into a door.” was more than a little awkward too, as you might imagine.

“Trumbomb” – I like that. Is that of your own creation? And I had to laugh at David Price’s injury. It’s just so hard to imagine how you could actually get hurt that way. As for your friend’s pantyhose injury, I could see taking them off being more dangerous than putting them on, though both are best done while perched on something rather than trying to balance on one foot.
– Sue

I wish I could lay claim to “Trumbomb” Sue, but that was either an Angels’ announcers thing or a Halos Heaven thing that went viral (for OC/LA values of viral) on the sheer power of its awesomeness. The pantyhose thing was funny. As I understand it, she was sitting on the bed, but the bed hadn’t been made well so the surface was uneven and when she stretched to pull on one of the legs, instant ouch.

The 2K series has the best commercials, but the game play sucks, imo. I’d prefer The Show, as it is. Who did they want for that commercial, Bartman????? If so, I don’t blame him for saying ‘no’. I still feel bad for that guy…
–Mike

I’ve never played any of the basebal video games more than a handful of times years ago, Mike. Oddly, I prefer fantasy and first person shooters. And yeah, it was Bartman they wanted. I agree, that’s just mean. Leave the guy alone.

What exactly happened to David Price? As I’ve probably written somewhere, if not various places, I don’t even watch Spring Training games, and this year they’ve messed up the MLBN schedule so much I can’t even watch the shows I normally watch without conducting an FBI-like investigation of the TV Guide.
-Mateohttp://mateofischer.mlblogs.com

LOL, Mateo. He was towling off his head in between innings and pulled so hard on the towel that it caught his at the base of his skull and pulled his neck til it popped. Nothing to worry about long term, but enough of a stiff neck to sit out an inning early.

The commercials are clever. They make you stop and look at the very least. Talk about being klutzy. A couple of baseball seasons ago, I dropped a gas pump nozzle on my little toe a week before the season started and had to laboriously limp from my parking space to my seat. What agony!!

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